Actually Gary, they are BOTH HDR images. The difference is that the one on the left was an "automatic" HDR done primarily in Nik HDR Efex. The one on the right was manually selecting and blending 5 layered images using Photoshop and tweaking the end result in Lightroom, all of which (I think) ended up with it looking much more in the photo like it looked to my eye. And was a whole heck of a lot more work.
Thing is, it taught me a ton! And it made me think differently about HDR. I think that the "crunchy" kind of look you often get with HDR is great for architecture, graffiti, machinery, old cars, and other urban type things. But it seems in nature, though you may still need those multiple ranged frames to get all the shadow and the highlights, a kinder, gentler touch in processing yields much more pleasing results.
I like the one on the right much better now too! That's much much closer to what I actually saw.
Thanks for looking Gary!!